Rahul’s probation to end soon

Rahul Gandhi is all set to be unanimously elected to the post of Congress chief even as the Central Election Authority (CEA) mulls setting the ball rolling for the much-expected event.

Nomination of papers is said to begin on October 10 with about five days, the maximum, being given for the same. If, there are no other contenders, it would mean that Rahul Gandhi would be announced the President of the party. He might assume charge at the plenary planned to be held at Benguluru in a month or so.

Rather than Rahul, it is the Congress party which has been waiting for its new leader to take over since long. "But the right time never came. Now is the time for Rahul to lead the party against the fascist forces. He has trained himself well in the past two years to take the reigns of the grand old national party", party sources claim.

It should be recalled that Rahul is branded as a reluctant entrant into the rough and tumble of the party who displayed not much enthusiasm to woo the nation. He became a mincemeat for the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in 2014 and presented himself in poor light. It has been a long struggle since then for him to find a 100 per cent acceptance within the party too with several seniors apprehensive about his leadership qualities.

Rahul's occasional visits to trouble spots like Bhatta Parsaul, Dadri or Madhya Pradesh and his tirade against the BJP government were no match to the BJP counters. His efforts to unite the Opposition too could be termed as not so successful as one or the other key player was always missing in the show. His party's alliance with the SP in the UP Assembly elections was disaster plunging the Opposition into further chaos.

The habit of Rahul Gandhi in going missing for weeks together without informing even his SPG personnel also came in for criticism and his irreverent attitude earned him the sobriquet – Pappu. However, Rahul's recent US tour came as fresh whiff of air as people saw in him a sensible, liberal and secular streak hitherto not taken seriously. The ruling BJP leadership might have criticised him on his attack on Modi government, yet, the liberals and free speech believers in the country agreed with him that all is not well with the present dispensation.

Having undergone this image make-over, Rahul is now all set to step into his mother's shoes soon. He has a big challenge on hand in both uniting the Opposition against the BJP and Hindutva forces and also in leading his party to a win in Gujarat Assembly elctions later this year.

But, will he deliver? That apart, organizational challenges to Rahul Gandhi can not be just wished away. Even die hard loyalists who stood by the family all these years and the party are skeptical about his caliber and capacity to run the party efficiently.

For this to happen Rahul Gandhi should turn himself into a democrat. Speaking about the shrinking space for free voice in the country or talking about hereditary politics or unemployment do not make him a true liberal democrat. It is not just the political power that Rahul Gandhi is inheriting, but also the Congress party's culture. This culture is not of tolerance at all. That would be wrong to claim.

The party which has nurtured vote banks throughout the country and in almost all States over a period with a penchant for dividing the opposition by all means cannot be called democratic in the real sense. Secondly, party's senior leaders still are not sure that he is above encouraging groupism within the party. Because, that again is a strong Congress culture.

Again there is no proof to suggest that Rahul will be tolerant enough to accept non Nehru-Gandhi family role in the party much. He is into the same old coterie politics so far and there is little to suggest he would come out of it. The party's spokespersons suggest that Rahul had undergone an image makeover. Is it as simple as, say, getting a facial done?

Perhaps, all that his mentors could have achieved is steadying his gaze through blinkers. And that does not fully evolve the character of a leader. Rahul can fight the hereditary politics later, but he has to fight, first, his hereditary qualities: Impatience (towards his partymen), impunity (that he licenses as has been seen in several corruption cases) and arrogance (all those who walked out of the party explained this abundantly) and the coterie culture. Above all he should develop a streak of common sense (his ATM visits looked so childish) and also a healthy respect for the strength of other parties he plans to ally with in future.

By W Chandrakanth